House of Fingolfin

   Royal house of the Noldor in Middle-earth.

   The House of the descendants and followers of Fingolfin, second son of Finwë, who was accounted High King of the Noldor after the death of his elder brother Fëanor in the first year of the First Age.

   During the early years of the First Age, the House of Fingolfin held the lands to the northwest of Beleriand; Hithlum, Nevrast and Gondolin. Of these, the city of Gondolin held until I 510, but Hithlum was overrun by Morgoth in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, where Fingon was slain (Fingolfin had already met his end in the Dagor Bragollach). The remnant of the House, including Fingon's son Ereinion Gil-galad, were succoured by Círdan the Shipwright in the Havens.

   After the Nirnaeth, Tuor son of Huor was sent as a messenger to Turgon in Gondolin, and there wedded Turgon's daughter Idril. Thus was the blood of Men introduced into the House, and the descendants of their line were named Half-elven, given the choice of whether they were to considered Men or Elves. All these descendants chose to be considered among the Firstborn, except Elrond's brother Elros (who became the first King of Númenor and was a direct ancestor of Aragorn II Elessar), and Elrond's daughter Arwen (Queen to Aragorn at the end of the Third Age).

   After the Fall of Gondolin, the survivors of the House lived as exiles at the Mouths of Sirion or in the Falas, until Eärendil the Mariner, descendant of Fingolfin's second son Turgon, sailed into the West to seek the aid of the Valar, who overthrew Morgoth in the War of Wrath in c.583.

   The last High King of the Noldor, Ereinion Gil-galad, remained in Middle-earth. He dwelt in Lindon with his great-nephew Elrond and Círdan the Shipwright, and marched with the Last Alliance to Mordor at the end of the Second Age. There he fell in the Siege of Barad-dûr, and the House of Fingolfin came to an end in Middle-earth.